2/3 of World’s Bird Species Found in a Single Day.
To commemorate the 100th anniversary of the Migratory Bird Treaty Act, 2018 has been declared the Year of the Bird. Many avian-related events are planned throughout the year to celebrate this milestone.
One such event occurred on May 5: the 2018 Global Big Day. Birding enthusiasts from around the world took to the fields and the forests, the mountains and the valleys, the coasts and the plains, the rivers and the lakes, to count birds over a 24 hour period. Over 28,000 people from 170 countries participated. More than 1.6 million individual birds were counted, representing 6899 species (2/3 of the world’s known bird species). More details concerning the results of the 2018 Big Day can be found at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology’s eBird page.
For information about local birding events, check out the Indiana Audubon Society.